Aflac Buybacks Held Up as ‘Stupid Debt Deal’ Eludes U.S.

Aflac Inc., the world’s largest seller of supplemental health insurance, said the outlook for share repurchases is unclear due in part to uncertainty caused by the showdown in Congress over the federal debt limit.

“We gotta get the stupid debt deal done in the U.S., for one thing,” Chief Financial Officer Kriss Cloninger said today on a conference call with analysts and investors. “Who knows how that’s going to affect world markets.”